ENG3320 Final Project

Air Bag Sensors

Kevin Tu #206729404

Pierre Malavoy #206952030

Derek Poon #207025653

Amir Saeidi #206850523

Professor Wei Gao

Friday April 14th, 2006

 As the numbers of vehicles on the road continue to increase, the probability of the

event of a car accident also increases. The most effective way to prevent serious injuries

or deaths is to prevent the accident from happening in the first place by educating drivers

on safe driving. But even if you yourself are a safe driver, you cannot guarantee that the

other people on the road are equally responsible and safe drivers. In order to keep drivers

and passengers safe, car companies have installed different devices in an attempt to

decrease the severity of injuries sustained due to car accidents. The most notable devices

would be seatbelts and airbags which are an essential part of preventing death or serious

injury. Seatbelts have long been acknowledged as an integral part of passenger safety but

there has been some controversy concerning airbags and their effectiveness. Although

there have been a few fatalities due to airbags, they have also saved tens of thousands of

drivers and passengers. With the increase in vehicle performance (speed) and size, the

commons safety becomes compromised. Because of this, air bags need to improve and be

perfected to protect people from the harsh physical abuse endured when getting into a car

accident.

1973 saw the first use of airbags as Ford implemented them in Oldsmobiles. In

the early stages of the airbag, many did not function properly and caused more harm than

aid but as the years progressed, so did airbag technology and airbags continue to improve

today. In 1998, it was required that from then on; all vehicles made were to be equipped

with full frontal airbags. Currently, statistics show that air bags reduce the risk of dying

in a direct frontal crash by about 30 percent. Also, a recent survey done by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows the impact that air bags have had in the

past decade.

Year 1994 2003

Total fatalities 40,716 42,643

Miles traveled (billions) 2,358 2,880

Fatalities per 100 billion 1.73 1.48

miles traveled
http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=safe&subject=safe_tech&story=techIntro

Although the number of fatalities has increased, the important number is the number of

fatalities per 100 billion miles traveled because the amount of people on the road has

increased dramatically from 1994 to 2003, and as seen in the table, the miles traveled

increased by 22%. The ratio has dropped from 1.73 to 1.48 and our goal is to find new

methods of air bag sensing and deployment to decrease that number even less, to ideally

zero which corresponds to no fatalities at all! In order to continue to improve today’s

airbags, one must know how airbags work and sort out the current problems.

There are three main parts to an airbag;

1) The air bag itself, which is made of a thin, nylon fabric, folded into the steering

wheel, dashboard, seat, or door depending on where the manufacturer would like

to put it.

2) The sensor, which detects the crash and determines when to deploy the airbag.

The sensor is made to detect crashes at speeds of greater than 10mph; anything

less does not require the ejection of an air bag according to tests conducted by the

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). “A mechanical

switch is flipped when there is a mass shift that closes an electrical contact, telling
 the sensors that a crash has occurred. The sensors receive information from an

accelerometer built into a microchip.”1

3) The air bag inflation system, where chemical reactions create hot blasts of

nitrogen which inflate the air bag.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/airbag1.htm

In the US, the inflation system must be designed to deploy the airbag at speeds up to

200 mph. Crashes take up to 80-120ms to complete. It takes 5-10ms for the sensor to

detect the crash, so that leaves less than 70ms for the air bag to deploy to be useful.

Air bags in the US also have to be deployed faster (than other countries) because only

70% of passengers wear their seatbelt, as opposed to the unprecedented 95% in

Australia. Because of this, the air bag deployment speed is designed to be so high in

order to stop a person who is not wearing a seatbelt from flying through the

windshield. At 200mph, this causes a serious problem. With so much force, the air

bag becomes extremely dangerous for children, pregnant women, elderly, and the

weak to sit in the passenger seat. There have been some cases where air bags have

1
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/airbag1.htm
killed little children and have seriously injured people from deployment. Because of

the naturally weak frame of children, they are advised not to sit in the front, but adults

who sit too close to the dashboard are at just as much risk as children are. Extensive

research has been conducted and it has been determined that the risk zone for driver

air bags is the first 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) of inflation. Therefore, positioning

yourself 10 inches (25 cm) from the driver air bag gives the airbag more time to

deploy and reduces the risk of serious, unneeded injury.

Air bags are supposed to inflate and then deflate quickly enough so that the

person has a cushion to hit as the momentum of the crash will send the passenger

moving forward. Most of the time, injuries due to air bags occur because the air bag

directly hits the passenger in the chest or head during deployment. This leads us to

finding ways of trying to sense the crash quicker or decreasing the time it takes to

fully inflate and deflate. Another sensor related problem to address is that certain cars

are designed to prevent the airbag from deployment when there is a child sitting in the

front passenger seat. This also keeps the airbag from deploying when a person who

weighs less than 150 pounds sits in the seat, except when they position themselves

perfectly in the center. People do not normally sit in the center of the car when they

drive, so there is clearly something wrong with the sensor system design because it is

impractical since the criteria won’t likely be met and the airbags can’t be deployed.

There are many different kinds of sensors/accelerometers used today such as pressure

sensors, piezoresistive accelerometers, capacitive accelerometers etc. One suggestion

to enhance air bag sensitivity is to use a new piezoresistive accelerometer.

Crash Sensor - Accelerometer

The airbag deployment mechanism relies on the measure of deceleration of the

car, which is a factor of the severity of the crash. This measurement is carried out by

crash sensors located forward of the passenger compartment. For greater sensitivity and

range coverage as well as redundancy, three such sensors will be utilized as a part of our

overall airbag system. One will be placed in front of the passenger compartment while

the two others will be mounted on the upper cross-member of the radiator panel on the

left and right side of the vehicle under the hood. This arrangement is illustrated in the

following figure. Each crash sensor will actually be comprised of two orthogonal

accelerometers in order to measure acceleration due to frontal and side impacts.

While the accelerometer unit can be thought of as the nerves of the airbag system,

its brain is the diagnostic module. It is basically a central processing unit located on the

floor pan between the engine and front-passenger compartments. It has the capability to

accept inputs from the remote accelerometers, deactivation switches and seatbelt

pretensioners. The latter input relates to the tightness or slack of a seatbelt. In the case of
our integrated system, the diagnostic module will also receive inputs from the image

sensor, described later, that include such parameters as passenger weight, position and

rate of displacement.

The decision making process of the diagnostic module is controlled by complex

algorithms which correlate all received variables in order to optimize the airbag

deployment. This includes determining the force of inflation, with the possibility of

multistage inflation, or whether to deploy the airbag at all.

The first accelerometers utilized for automotive airbag deployment purposes were

the ball and magnet, and the spring band and roller accelerometers. Although both

systems differed in design, their functionality was essentially the same; a sudden

deceleration would cause a mass (ball or roller) to be displaced which would close the

contact to a circuit. This would trigger the deployment of the airbag. With the rising

popularity and refinement of mems devices, these systems were soon replaced with

micro-machined accelerometers with the advent of Analog Devices’ ADXL50

accelerometer. Mems based systems offered the advantage of increased performance

coupled with decreased size.

Of course, mems being a broad field, there are several physical mechanisms based

on which an accelerometer can be designed. The most widely used of these, is the

measure of change of capacitance proportional to a change in acceleration. Such

capacitive accelerometers include the ADXL50 pioneering device mentioned previously.

Although these category of accelerometers function properly in today’s airbag systems,

we sought to utilize a unique design principal that has the potential to match if not
increase its performance. The accelerometer in question is based on piezoresistance,

which is the change of a materials resistance with applied stress. The concept is described

graphically in the figure on the left: The proof mass

deflects when under acceleration which causes

subsequent deflection of the cantilever supporting it, with the piezoresistor at its root,

which is the area under highest stress. Therefore, the change in acceleration can be

measured through the change in resistance of the piezoresistor as stress is applied to it via

the proof mass-cantilever assembly. Newly designed optical accelerometers were also

considered. They function on the principle of light modulation proportional to changes in

acceleration. Unfortunately, they do not offer the measure range in acceleration necessary

for our system.

The piezoresistive accelerometer used as the crash sensors in our airbag system is

shown in the following figure. It consists

of a proof mass supported by a central

cantilever as well as two tiny beams

located symmetrically on either side of

the central cantilever. The optimized

performance achieved by this uniquely designed accelerometer is based on careful

control of stress applied to the tiny beams, which are themselves the piezoresistors. The

following figure shows the top-view deflection of the proof mass under applied

acceleration. This causes the tiny beams to deflect in the same direction as they are linked

to the proof mass via the two mass-legs. At the same time, these mass-legs are also

rotated about the end of the central cantilever. This has the effect of deflecting the tiny
beams in the direction opposite to that of the previous deflection. With the correct

geometric relations,

mainly the distance

between the cantilever

and the tiny beams, the

transverse deflection of

the beams can be made

to cancel out leaving

only an axial component of the stress. This acceleration dependant stress is converted to

useful electrical form by incorporating the piezoresistors into a wheatstone bridge circuit.

The purely axial deformation of the piezoresistors has the effect of drastically

improving the sensitivity and frequency bandwidth of the sensor. The following graph

depicts the sensitivity and resonant frequency of the proposed accelerometer for different

measure ranges of acceleration. The measure range of the accelerometers for our system

is chosen to be ±50 g, a typical range value for collision detection. Referring to the graph,

this corresponds to a

sensitivity of

approximately 1

mV/5V/g and a

resonant frequency of

over 10 kHz. These

performance values
are very impressive as they surpass those of modern capacitive accelerometers currently

used in airbag sensors.

The device is constructed using standard bulk silicon micromachining techniques.

This is advantageous in terms of cost due to the maturity of the technology and is also

optimal for performance thanks to silicon’s piezoresistive properties, attributed primarily

to its indirect band-gap. The fabrication process is depicted in the following figure.

Light boron is diffused to form the tiny beams which are themselves the

piezoresistors. Heavy boron is also diffused for the ohmic contact, while aluminum is

sputtered and patterned for interconnection. The proof mass is then released by using

reactive ion etching (RIE) on the front side and deep RIE (DRIE) for back-side etching.
 In addition to the piezoresitive accelerometer, automakers and suppliers are

seeking an alternative airbag sensor since the actual safety of airbags using seat sensors

(pressure sensors) have been questioned by many. Placing sensors in the passenger seat

supposedly senses the passenger’s size, weight, and distance from the dashboard as it

deploys an airbag with an appropriate force to protect the passenger. However, this

method has been stated to be unreliable as shown in the demonstration video from our

presentation because it assumes the passenger is sitting in an upright position which is not

always the case. If there is something is shoved under the seat or if the passenger is not

sitting in the correct position the sensor can misread the passenger’s size, weight, or

distance from the dashboard and possibly deploy a deadly airbag rather than a protecting

one. For example, prior to a collision it is a natural human reflex for a normal person to

try and stop the vehicle which leads to heavy braking. In the case of heavy braking the

weight of the vehicle is shifted to the front and as a result the passenger’s body also dives

forward. Therefore, the passenger’s head would be much closer to the dashboard than if

they were sitting upright. So by assuming and deploying the airbag with a force ideal for

a passenger sitting upright would be dangerous in that situation since their head is closer

than expected.

An alternative could be to use a vision sensor to detect the position of the

passenger with its high performance, fast processing times, and flexible configurations

for various applications. Today’s low cost general purpose machine vision technology

has begun to emerge in the form of vision sensors. The advantages of vision sensors are

their ease of use, lower cost, functionality, and can also be applied to applications that

traditionally use other sensor technology. Measurement sensors or proximity sensor

arrays performing measurements and inspections can in many cases be replaced by a

single vision sensor. Although the costs of these methods of sensing may be lower than

vision sensors, they require constant calibration and maintenance. This makes vision

sensors a competitive and cost effective solution due to their functionality since they can

add new inspection or measurement capabilities with fast and easy modifications.

http://www.phoeniximaging.com/PVS-30-ENC1_45_small_350_web.jpg

Vision Sensor

Vision sensors come in several different forms of hardware and software

combinations that provide several ways of solving various inspection and measurement

applications. Different kinds of detection methods can be employed including binary,

gray scale or single CCD color depending on the inspection or measurement required.

For our application to the airbag sensor we require detecting the passenger’s features and

position which would benefit from the use of gray scale detection.

Configurations of hardware include the all in one “smart camera” approach where

the camera, lens, light source, and processor are in a single package. The imaging sizes
of the camera vary based on price providing pixel resolutions from 200H x 190V to 640H

x 480V. This approach has the advantages of acting as a stand alone unit with I/O or

communication outputs to other devices like an information collection network. Transfer

of the image to the processor does not go through a cable transmission which increases

the speed of total processing time. Another common configuration is the use of a smaller

remote camera, lens and light source with a separate processor. A remote camera allows

a more compact camera to be used and a separate processor also allows for I/O wiring

termination points to be located on the controller housing within a control cabinet to

minimize wiring.

http://www.visualinspections.it/images/camera__logo.jpg

Smart Camera

Software can come in various forms to fit the complexity of the application.

Manufacturers can provide an on-screen drop-down menu to allow self-contained

configuration or a Windows based GUI type interface for setup and configuration.

Depending on the type of vision sensors some combine several software methods to

maximize flexibility. A pushbutton interface can be used for presence or absence

detection and feature comparison by simply putting good and/or bad parts in the field of

view and teaching the sensor the parts. Any deviation or change can be analyzed and a
pass or fail judgment based on the data gathered with setup or changes being easily made.

The use of dropdown menus or Windows interfaces offer customizable configuration

capabilities that allow settings or changes to be made to many aspects of measurements

or inspections. Measurement tools, data produced, and execution orders can all be

configured without the use of programming code.

So our idea is to have a tiny camera mounted on the roof of the overhead console

which faces back into the cockpit tracking the passenger. At that view the camera can

clearly see exactly what is happening in the vehicle as if there was someone watching

over the passengers. With the appropriate hardware and software, the images taken by

the camera can be processed to determine the characteristics of the passengers. This data

can also be triangulated to pinpoint the position of the passenger’s head and its distance

from the airbag which is very important since the head is the most crucial part of the

body we need to protect. It can determine the type of passenger seated such as adults,

children, rear facing baby seats, or even empty seats. The vision sensor can outline

which areas in the vehicle would be considered dangerous to deploy the airbag and when

the passengers end up in that zone the system will prevent the deployment and vice versa.

Using the vision sensor can replace the current sensors used in the today’s airbag systems

such as seatbelt, seat position, and weight sensors since the vision sensor can perform all

their tasks in a more efficient manner although with a slightly higher cost. This system

can also operate in a range of different environments such as humidity, light, temperature,

and vibrations which are conditions encountered by vehicles all the time and also how

some other current sensors used sometimes malfunction.

 Therefore, a camera doing all the sensing and data gathering would give a more

accurate view of what is actually happening inside the vehicle. This way the safety

system can be applied faster which would be more efficient in preventing injuries or

casualties. Instead of having the airbag deploy as a reaction to an event like in current

methods, the system can anticipate ahead of time whether it would be ideal or not to

deploy the airbag given the data gathered on the current situation from the camera. The

downside to this method is that it requires additional hardware and software to be

installed in the vehicle. Automakers may have to alter the design of their vehicle to fit

this technology which could add to the vehicle’s overall cost and weight. Using a vision

sensor in the airbag system is beneficial and efficient due to its functionality and

capabilities, but its cost is slightly higher than current methods and would depend

whether automakers are willing to pay to implement this technology in their vehicles.

Millions of vehicles in Canada now have air bags. There is abundant evidence that

air bags, used in conjunction with seat-belts, save lives. Transport Canada has estimated

they saved 100 lives in 1998. Since air bags were introduced, a total of six people

(including one child) were killed, none of whom appears to have been properly

restrained.

The dedication of many car companies has shown that air bags are an evolving

technology. Many of the concerns currently being expressed will be addressed in the near

future as air bag systems become more advanced. "Smart" air bags are being developed,

which will inflate according to such factors as seat-belt use, occupant size, occupant
presence and closeness to the air bag module. The system of sensors that we have

introduced seems to have this new or “smart” air bag notion.

It is imperative to mention that air bags are only safe when the passenger is in the

right seating position that means a person should be sitting back at a right angle with their

back against the seat and also wearing a seatbelt that would hole them in place even

during crashes and under massive decelerations. But we can safely say that with our

proposed system we would find out if the occupant was wearing a seatbelt or not, prior or

even during the crash. This system of ours with the new accelerometer and vision sensor

changes the ‘safe zone’ of air bag deployment and with our sensors, the position of the

passenger is irrelevant. The question of whether children are safe in the front seat

becomes more troubling with growing consumer demand for pick-up trucks and other

utility/specialty vehicles which may have no back seat whatsoever. That is why with this

proposed sensor system we would be able to detect if the occupant is a child or a smaller

size adult and then use this data to deploy the air bag accordingly.

An air bag is only as good as its control system. On most vehicles, the bag is

triggered electrically. Located in the front of most domestic vehicles are one to three

"crash" sensors. Our system of sensors will support 3 accelerometers and 2 vision sensors

for the front passengers which are usually most affected by a head-on or even side

crashes. These are positioned well forward in the crush zones so they will react almost

instantly to the sudden deceleration that results from a frontal impact (anything up to

about 30 degrees either side of center). The vision sensors as mentioned are being placed
above each front passenger (Driver and front passenger). Many European vehicles use

only a single electronic crash sensor located inside the passenger compartment. This

could create a problem because since one sensor is not reliable and the slightest error

would actually cause accident. To prevent false deployments that might result from

bumping into objects or a slow speed fender bender, our air bag system uses three

"safety" or "arming" sensors which are located inside the passenger compartment. In

addition our air bag system can also work with other sensors within the car to make better

and more accurate predictions. Examples of these sensors would be speed sensors. Our

air bag system would use the speed that the car is traveling to deploy air bags of right

size. This, again, is in accordance with seat occupancy, passenger size, weight and

seating position.

Our air bag system supported by many sophisticated control systems will ensure

maximum passenger safety. But relying completely on the air bag systems to keep

passengers safe is not enough. There are a few measures/precautions that passengers can

keep in mind to ensure their own safety.

Here are some tips on safety to be used to support the air bag system:
 • Seat-belt should be worn at all times. This is to ensure proper seating position
and also to keep a safe distance from the passengers head to the air bag, to
prevent possible head/neck injuries from the impact with air bag.
• Seats should be adjusted to a comfortable level (enough leg room). This is to
give passengers just the right distance from the dash.
• Before operating the vehicle make sure that the air bag system is properly
functioning. This can be done by looking for any indication (on the driver’s
panel) of any sort of faulty/malfunctioning equipment.
• Small and elder adults and children should be properly supported and
restrained to the seat to minimize any dangerous free movement. This is
especially emphasized for the head and neck area.
• If the air bag light is on the car should immediately be taken to a certified auto
repair shop. This is to ensure maximum passenger safety.
• Do not under any circumstances try to repair, change, examine, observe or
replace the air bag system (esp sensors) unless you are certified to do so.

In conclusion our system seems to be a reliable alternative to be used in vehicles.

It provides faster data processing which is what is needed to keep passengers safe in a

crash. Our design consists of the following characteristics which make it a unique and

safe one to use:

• Installing side air bags for maximum safety inside the passenger compartment.
• Two separate air bag control systems, for front air bags and sides.
• Vision sensors that use algorithms to estimate weight, size, posture and seating
position of the passenger.
• “Smart” air bag system that uses cutting-edge sensing technology to provide
different size air bags for various passengers and situations.
• Using other systems already present within a vehicle, like speed sensors, to make
proper decision as to when and how to deploy the air bags.
• Using multiple sensors, such as crash sensors, air bag sensors and vision sensors
to implement a bullet proof decision system to reduce false deployment that could
lead to unwanted accidents.
• Using sophisticated electronics created with MEMS technology.

These characteristics will ensure maximum safety inside a vehicle and will have a huge

impact on the automotive industry.

 References

Korvink Jan and Oliver Paul. MEMS : a practical guide to design, analysis, and
applications. Norwich, New York. William Andrew Pub. 2006.

Pelesko, John A. and David H. Bernstein. Modeling MEMS and NEMS. Boca Raton,
FL. Chapman & Hall/CRC. 2003.

Rai-Choudhury, P. MEMS and MOEMS technology and applications. Washington.

SPIE Optical Engineering Press. 2000.

A high-performance micromachined piezoresistive accelerometer with axially stressed

tiny beams. Shusen Huang, Xinxin Li, Zhaohui Song, Yuelin Wang, Heng Yang, Lufeng
Che, Jiwei Jiao. Institute of Physics Publishing. China, 2005.

A High-Performance Planar Piezoresistive Accelerometer. Aaron Partridge. Journal of

Micro-electro-mechanical Systems, Vol.9, NO.1, March 2000.

Uniaxial Silicon Piezoresistive Accelerometer. Ioan Pavelescu, Paula Matei. National

Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies, Romania.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/airbag1.htm/

http://www.aa1car.com/library/airbag01.htm

http://ccrma.stanford.edu/CCRMA/Courses/252/sensors/node9.html

http://www.compad.com.au/clients/autosys/indexPrev.php?

updaterUrlPrev=articleDisplay.php&artId=121

http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/safety/articles/45863/article.html

http://www.phoeniximaging.com/PVS-30-ENC1_45_small_350_web.jpg

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

http://www.nsc.org/public/air0801/12.pdf
http://www.sae.org/automag/sensors/02.htm

http://www.tarorigin.com/art/Ephillips/